
^)^V 



I 




I 






hmM Haves' Professional Refoniiers. 



THE TWO SMITHS. 



TOMMIE AND WILLIAM HENRY. 



UEH AFTER HAVES' OWN HEART. 



HOW HE REAYARDS THEM. 



By F. C. ADAMS, 

Author of " The Siege of Washington," and other Books. 



WASHINGTON, D. C, 
July, 1880. 









JUDD & DETWEILER, 

PRINTERS, 

Washiniiton, I). C. 



; 






REFORMERS-ANCIENT AND MODERN. 



There have been reformers, great reformers and small 
reformers, political and religious charlatans, enthusiasts 
and dreamers, — and, worst of all, bigoted and mischief- 
making malignants in all countries and in all ages. Rome 
even in her decline, had and was cursed with a surplus 
of reformers, political and religious, and suffered equally 
from both. Greece was not more fortunate. More than 
three centuries ago she began to retrograde under the influ- 
ence of men who called themselves reformers, but were in 
reality nothing more than enthusiasts and dreamers. The 
grand old Republic of Venice suffered greatly from the 
bad influence of public men who called themselves reform- 
ers, but who were really nothing more than malignant 
political and religious bigots, dangerous always to the good 
order and well being of the State. 

All history teaches that the most mischievous and danger- 
ous elements in the body politic of a State are its religious 
and political fanaties, men whose malignity is directed to 
destroying character and life alike. These men are es- 
pecially trouWesome, dangerous, and violent in times of 
great excitement, or when some great disturbing element 
threatens the life of the State. Many of them, the more 
restless and malignant, during times of great excitement, 



seem to have no other object in life than destroying the 
characters and lives of better and braver men than them- 
selves. Like the Fenian in Ireland he will resort to 
violence, and even assassination to effect his object, and 
think it no harm. 

The surroundings of a better education and a higher 
civilization work but little change for the better in the 
character of the professional reformer, for we find him in 
more modern times quite as restless, malignant, aggressive, 
and dangerous to the peace of the State as he was of old. 

Spain, Germany and Italy have suffered more during 
the last half century than any other States, from the mis- 
chievous influences of reformers of the political and re- 
ligious type. Very many of these dangerous men are 
assassins by nature, and in the pursuit of their object 
overlook principle, and aim only to destroy the character 
and even life of better and braver men than themselves. 
Nor have they any distinct idea of what good government 
means. 

France and England have also had their reformers ; 
the record of their history is well known to the general 
reader, and is not a pleasant one to contemplate. This 
country, too, has had a superabundance of reformers of 
the most malignant type — religious, political and social — 
and it has suffered from their influence accordingly. They 
are not exact prototypes of the European reformer, but 
they are at times equally mischievous and dangerous to 
the peace and good order of society. There were military 
charlatans and political demagogues before John Pope and 
Benjamin F. Butler. But we must accept these two char- 
acters as furnishing the very highest type of the charla- 



5 

tan and demagogue of modern times — selfish, restless and 
reckless — never so happy as when they are making war on 
purer, better and braver men than themselves. True, our 
professional reformer is neither so despicable nor so danger- 
ous as the Irish Fenian, nor is he so much to be feared as 
the skulking assassin of Germany and Spain, and yet their 
methods lead to results equally damaging to life and charac- 
ter. The force of their malignity, too, is restrained by the 
more generous and enlightened public sentiment of our 
people. 

Massachusetts, too, had her reformers, a cross between 
the preacher and the politician, conspicuous for their malig- 
nity, and who sang psalms and praised God that they were 
better than other men until midnight, and amused them- 
selves after breakfast on the following morning torturing 
and putting to death what they were pleased to call witches. 
To have called these violent fanatics anything less than re- 
formers and truly good men would not only have offended 
others, but invoked their veugance. Even little Rhode 
Island did not escape the malignant influence of her early 
reformers, who took great pride in roasting all who differed 
with them for opinion's sake, and this they did in the sin- 
cere belief that they had satisfied God and rendered man- 
kind a service. 

Our late civil war opened a fruitful field to professional 
reformers, of a somewhat new and novel type. They were 
both military and political in their operations, and both 
pursued their object with a malignity unprecedented. 
These men entered the field thrown so widely open to them 
with rare avidity, and selected objects for their destruction 
among the bravest and best of our generals. The work of 



6 

defamation and destruction once began, these mischievous, 
restless, and ambitious men, calling themselves reformers, 
left no stone unturned that would aid in completing their 
work of destruction. Zackariah Chandler, from his seat 
in the Senate of the United States, furnished us with the 
highest and most active type of the reformer we have been 
discussing. Wm. E. Chandler is only less dangerous as a 
reformer, because he is an insignificant figure in the politi- 
cal picture of the day. An example of the lowest, most 
malignant, and yet dangerous type of modern reformer 
may be found in one of the Smiths (Tommie) whose 
names head this article. 



PRESIDENT HAYES' PET REFORMERS, 

TOMMIE AND WILLIAM H. SMITH. 

The two Smiths referred to above, have figured some- 
what conspicuously since the advent of Mr. Hayes. Both 
are professional reformers, given to psalm singing and 
other pious occupations, and both al-e men after Hayes' 
own heart. And what to many persons will seem very 
singular, both are Ohio men, born, bred, and educated. 
These Smiths are not relatives, but Tommie, as he is famil- 
iarly called is, so we are informed, a relative of good Mrs. 
Hayes on one side, and General John Pope on the other. 
This being so, he is enough in the Hayes family for ordi- 
nary purposes, and it will account for his swearing that he 
knew Fitz John Porter was a traitor from the look of his 
countenance, and John Pope was the greatest general 
history had any account of. William Henrv, the other 



Smith, was Mr. Hayes conscience-keeper during the time he 
was Governor of Ohio. In other words, he was Mr. Hayes' 
Secretary of State. Both Smiths are active, aggressive, en- 
terprising, and speculative, ready always to join you in 
making on honest penny or singing a psalm. Tommie, if 
he ever gets into paradise, (and we will do nothing to keep 
him out,) would proceed at once to mature a scheme of re- 
form. If in the place below, he would invent a new reli- 
gion, put the devil on the retired list, and reform his plan 
of treating sinners, and conduct things in his own way ; 
perhaps open a law school on an improved system. 

Tommie and William Smith, the reader will be surprised 
to hear, have spent a great deal of their valuable time 
searching after houester and better men than themselves, 
and have despaired at not finding them. Both have dis- 
tinguished themselves, Tommie as a persecuting witness 
and a military hero — William Henry as an embodiment 
of civil-service reform of the Hayes pattern. In short, both 
these Smiths have antecedents and peculiarities of charac- 
ter the student of history might study with profit. We 
will let Tommie tell the story of his antecedents ; and to 
that end will turn to page 334 of the testimony recently 
taken before the board for the re-hearing of the Fitz John 
Porter case. 

Direct examination by Recorder Gardner ; " Question. 
State your rank and station ? 

" Answer. Paymaster ; present station at Washington, 
temporarily. 

" Question. When did you first enter the military ser- 
vice ? 

" Answer. August, 1861. 



" Question. In what capacity ? 

" Answer. Lieutenant Colonel, First Ohio Cavalry." 

He was mustered out of the service as a full-feathered 
brigadier general, without a scar, in February, 1866. 
Yes, he was mustered out with all the honors but no scars. 
The First Ohio Cavalry did not gain much of a reputa- 
tion as a fighting regiment during the war ; and its Lieu- 
tenant Colonel passed the earlier portion of his military 
career in the pastural regions of Wisconsin, and far away 
from danger. Indeed it was not until the long to be re- 
membered second battle of Bull Run, when that prince of 
military charlatans. Pope, went forth with his headquarters 
in the saddle to destroy the enemy, in a word to bag the whole 
crowd of rebels, that our hero, Tommie Smith, came upon 
the stage as a warrior of no mean order. In August, 1862, 
he says : " I was acting as aid-de-camp on General Pope's 
staff * * my particular position was that I had charge of 
the cipher dispatches between the General and the Govern- 
ment — all the confidential dispatches." Tommie was un- 
doubtedly the author of that bombastic and sublimely ridic- 
ulous address signed by John Pope, and published for the 
benefit of the army on the 14th of July, 1862. The rear, 
it will be remembered, was to take care of itself, and our 
brave boys, Ohioaus included, were to march straight 
ahead, and look straight ahead, until they could tell the 
color of the enemy's garments and see him wink. Then 
our brave boys, Ohioans included, were to " go for him," 
and never stop until they had " bagged the whole crowd." 
What nonsense to talk of bases of supplies, when their 
General would always be found with his " headquarters in 
the saddle ;" Tommie declined to father the child. When 



9 

pressed he replied : " I saw the address before it was 
issued." That so rare a piece of military literature should 
pass into history on disputed authorship is vexatious. 
Mr. Choate must not grieve over this ; it was only natural 
that Tommie should disown his bantling." 

We again quote from the testimony, page 337 — " General 
Pope said to me, I wish you at one o'clock, a. m. (on 27th 
of August) to take as few or as many men as you choose 
of your regiment, and take this road back here which 
passes off behind the lines to the right, and follow it well 
out, then after that, take the first road that goes back 
toward Bristow, and I wish you to scout on that road until 
the arrival of General Porter's Corps. It will not be long 
before it will come up the road." You might search for some 
time through the English language without finding any- 
thing more cloudy and confusing than the above. And 
yet it is of a piece with all the literary stufi" that emanated 
from Pope's headquarters during that memorable cam- 
paign. Here, however, was an opportunity for our Smith 
to make a hero of himself, and he seized it. Listen to 
what he says, and you will wonder that he exposed himself 
to danger in so fearless a manner. 

" Accordingly, I gave direction to one of my ofiicers, 
that precisely at one o'clock, five men should be ready, and 
my horse saddled ; and that I should not be called until 
one." Here we pause to make a remark. Our warrior 
did not indeed intend to be caught napping. There is a 
falstaffian precision about the time his horse should be 
saddled that is refreshing. In truth, there is no discount- 
ing the courage of a soldier who will order his horse with 
such precision as to time, and proceed to face death on a 
2 



10 

blind road and a dark night. Our hero continues—" He 
called me at one o'clock precisely, and I immediately got 
into the, saddle, (again exact,) and started and followed 
the road indicated by General Pope, and continued, I sup- 
pose, half way from Bristow to Brentville. I think we 
went out about a mile and a half, perhaps two miles. 
Then I scouted down this road." Here is where our Smith 
proved himself a true warrior, and a soldier whose courage 
no man could gainsay. 

"I put two men in front a hundred yards, riding myself 
with a man in the middle, and two men back a hundred 
yards." Tommie Smith had evidently made up his mind 
that discretion was the better part of valor, and that all 
great military men had considered it necessary prudence 
to ride properly guarded, and at a safe distance from the 
enemy. The night, according to all accounts, was very 
dark, and the two men a hundred yards in front of Tommie, 
and the two men a hundred or more yards in the rear of 
him, were a sufficient guard against being surprised in 
front or rear by the enemy. There is no knowing what 
might have happened to Pope and his army had Tommie 
Smith been captured by the rebels on that memorable and 
very dark night ; and according to the best of his knowl- 
edo-e he galloped from " I should say three and a half to 
four miles," and all without a mishap. 

On page 343 there is also some very amusing testimony . 
We say amusing, in consideration of the fact that General 
John Pope had the life of the nation by the coat tails just 
at that time. He had left General Porter's headquarters^ 
and was at Manassas Junction, when " a mounted raessen- 
seuger came up and asked if I was Colonel Smith. I told 



11 

him I was." How very condescending, and yet how stupid 
of the mounted messenger not to know without asking, 
that he was Lieutenant Colonel Thomas C. H. Smith, of 
the First Ohio Calvary, and a relative of the great John 
Pope, Major General. " He said that General Porter 
wished me to return and dine with him." The reader will 
be surprised to know that the Colonel, in obedience to the 
demands of his country, had to decline, notwithstanding 
he was very hungry. 

Only a few minutes before he had made the awful dis- 
covery that the brave Porter, the hero of some hard-fought 
battles, was a traitor. Yes, he saw treason lurking in his 
eyes, he could read treason in every expression of his face. 
The idea of so great a warrior and pure a patriot dining 
or sharing even a marrow-bone with Porter was shocking 
to him. He would die for his country if he had to die, 
and he would prefer to go hungry than have it said he 
was not a patriot. He changed his mind, however, and 
concluded to live for the benefit of Hayes and his admin- 
istration. 

The true theory of this remarkable discovery by Colonel 
Smith, namely, that he was satisfied Porter was a traitor 
has never been given. Porter has a very slight cast in 
one of his eyes, and Tomraie had a settled belief that the 
Almighty had some sinister motive in not putting a square 
pair of eyes into a man's head. In truth he based his 
discovery on the cast in Porter's eye. Now, suppose the 
truly loyal Tommie, in the course of his galloping had 
struck the headquarters of that distinguished General from 
Massachusetts, Benjamin F. Butler, but without knowing 
who that General was, would not his feelings have been 



12 

shocked ? Suppose he had taken a square view of that 
marvelous face, with those sinister eyes working at acute 
angles — according to the state of excitement he was then 
in, he would have discovered treason enough in that face 
to have destroyed the Union Army. 



MR. CHOATE TAKES TOMMIE SMITH IN 
HAITD. 

Page 343 : " What was your occupation before the war 
of the rebellion broke out ? 

" Answer. I was a lawyer by profession. 

" Question. Was that your occupation? 

" Answer. Yes, when the war broke out I was practising 
law at Cincinnati. 

" Question. What was yonr occupation after February, 
1866, when you were mustered out as brigadier general? 

" Answer. I took no regular occupation. I undertook 
to open a stock-farm in Southwest Missouri. 

Calf and colt raising was not congenial to him, for 
further on he tells us : " I went home to Marietta a year, 
and operated in oil in the neighborhood of Parkersburg 
about six months or a year, then I went to Missouri again. 

" Question. When did you quit that stock-farm ? 

" Answer. I quit it at the time of the Chicago fire. 
That destroyed my capital." 

He was for some time, it would seem, in a very dilapi- 
dated condition, commercially and otherwise, and devoted 
a great deal of time in connection with General Pope and 
other heroes, manufacturing, publishing, and circulating 
documents in defamation of Porter, and in praise of Mc- 
Dowell and Pope. For a reformer this was not the most 



13 

honorable occupation a man could be engaged in. But it 
is in evidence that he was rewarded for his labor, in pro- 
motion as well as money. 

The reader will see by the above that our hero, Tommie 
Smith, Hayes' reformer, was a failure as a lawyer, a failure 
as a stock raiser, and a failure as a borer for oil. We 
entertain a suspicion that Tommie's mercantile and other 
failures were brought about by a constitutional weakness 
for attending to other people's business and neglecting his 
own. On turning to page 362, we discover this military 
hero in his true character. 



A SPIRITUALIST AND A REFORMER. 

" You testified on the former trial as to an interview 
with General Porter, on the afternoon of the 28th ?" en- 
quired Mr. Choate, with his inimitable coolness. 

" Answer. Yes, sir. 

" Question. In which you discovered treason lurking in 
in his eyes. 

" Answer. That is your account of it. 

" Question. In the further course of your testimony, 
(before the court-martial,) you stated that you had on 
several occasions made similar discoveries upon your first 
acquaintance with various persons. Can you specify those 
other cases ? " 

To which this wicked old witness replied, with marked 
bad temper, " I did'nt state anything of the kind." 

Mr. Choate expressed surprise, and at once referred to 
the record. 

" Then I shall have to read to you v»hat I mean," re- 
sumed Mr. Choate. — 



14 

Again the testy witness interrupted : I spoke of it, he 
said, " as a general fact in the knowledge of men that you 
could occasionally (?) on meeting a person, even for the 
first time, see what he intends to do from his looks, as well 
as from what he says." 

It never for a moment occurred to this swift witness that 
he was putting himself on a plane with a first-class villian, 
ready to swear a brave soldier's life away. He did not 
seem to appreciate the fact that there was something shock- 
ing about this ; that, in fact in carried one's mind instinc- 
tively back to the days of brave old Doria and his perse- 
cutors. It is enough to make humanity shudder. 

Mr. Choate proceeded to read from the record of the 
court-martial — " You say " I find here, " I had one of those 
clear convictions that a man has a few times, perhaps, in 
his life, as to the character and purposes of a person whom 
he sees for the first time." 

The cunning witness was equal to the occasion, and 
answered with the coolness of a Greek brigand. " That is 
a very different thing from saying that I had such experi- 
ence." The possession of such supernatural powers, had 
they been exercised in the days of the Salem witches, 
might have subjected this witness to strangulation. 

Mr. Choate puts another very distasteful question : 

" You did not have such experience before, did you ? " 

Here's where reformer Smith's law knowledge came into 
use : " That is irrevelant to the question." 

" Did you," resumed Mr. Choate, " refer to yourself when 
you said, ' I had one of those clear convictions that a man 
has a few times, perhaps, in his life, as to the character 
and purposes of a person whom he sees for the first time ?' " 



15 

The witness was compelled to face the truth, and re- 
plied with unusual bad temper : " No, I made it as a 
general observation in regard to men." 

Mr. Choate was not disposod to accept that answer as 
satisfactory. (We are still quoting from page 362.) 

" Question. Had you ever, on any previous occasion in 
your life, made any such discovery as to the character and 
purpose of a person whom you saw for the first time? 

" Answer. I say 1 do not regard that as a relevant or 
pertinent question. It does not grow out of my evidence. 
You have no right to ask me in regard to my experience 
in life." 

Let us tell this bad-tempered witness right here that his 
excuse is similar to that made by the very worst of crimi- 
nals. 

Mr. Choate interposed : 

" This gentleman," said he, " was produced as a witness 
by the Government before the court martial, to prove that 
General Porter was a traitor because when he visited him in 
his tent on the afternoon of the 28th of August, he saw 
treason lurking in his eye. There are various forms in 
which he expresses it, but that is the most prominent one 
in which it w^as pressed upon the attention of President 
Lincoln, by the Judge Advocate ; and it was a very mate- 
rial lever used in the conviction of General Porter. I dif- 
fer from the witness entirely ; I think it is quite pertinent 
for us to find out and probe the depth of his skill, and 
the sources of such a clairvoyant discovery as that. If 
he had had great experience before, and had made simi- 
lar successful discoveries, it would add greatly to the 
weight of his testimony, because if it had never happened 
to him before, and if it should further appear that he 
did'nt know any other man to whom it had ever happened 
before, it may tend to weaken the weight which this Board 



16 

and which the President, whom this Board represents, 
would give to his supposed discovery." 

To this the witness, Smith, made the following character- 
istic reply : 

" I do not wish the counsel to put words into ray mouth, 
and to declare that I have used an impression which I 
have not. Nevertheless, I entirely appreciate the gentle- 
men's ingenuity, and not the less because, like any other 
commodity, it is for sale in the market." 

The witness entirely overlooked the fact that the shock- 
ing testimony he gave before the court-martial was a com- 
modity in the market, and was paid for by the meanest of 
tyrants, Edwin M. Stanton. For giving such testimony, 
for seeking the destruction of one of the bravest and most 
successful generals of the army, this swash-buckler was 
shortly after breveted a brigadier general. 

On page 363, Mr. Choate resumes : " I want to call the 
attention of the board to what the judge advocate said, as 
presenting a little different view of it from that which the 
recorder takes. The judge advocate said : ' It is a life-long 
experience that souls read each other, and that there 
are inter-communings of spirits through instrumentalities 
which, while defying all human analysis, nevertheless com- 
pletely command the homage of human faith.' " The 
judge advocate was Holt, a decayed politician, who now 
wanders moodily about Washington, with the rank and 
pay of a brigadier general on the retired list, his hands 
foul with the blood of an innocent woman. It indeed 
seems strange that in this enlightened nineteenth century, 
with our boasted higher education and the broader and 
more generous sentiments of our people — with all our 



17 

progress in literature, art aud science, a mau, and that 
man an American, should have been found to stand up 
before an important court and defend such stuff as Smith 
swore to and accept it as evidence. Like the court, the 
judge advocate was iu pursuit of vengence, not justice. 

The whole story of the conspiracy to crush General 
Porter has not yet been told. McClellan was on trial, 
Porter was convicted. The candid reader can form a 
pretty clear opinion of what manner of man this swift 
witness, Tommie Smith, is ; and yet he is a professional 
reformer and a man after President Hayes' own heart ; aud 
President Hayes is a high priest of civil service reform. 
Indeed the good natured President was scarcely warm in 
the White House, when he summoned Tommie Smith from 
his abscurity in Ohio, and made him appointment clerk iu 
the Treasury. All to prove his love for civil service re- 
form and a relative of Mrs. Hayes. As if that was not 
enough Mr. Hayes nominated his relative for paymaster 
in the regular army, where he could have easy work and 
good pay for life. A subservient Senate of course con- 
firmed the appointment. 

We never could understand why the pay department of 
the army should be made a Botany Bay for the needy rela- 
tives of selfish presidents. The country was shocked when 
Grant closed his shameful career of nepotism by sending to 
the Senate, a few days before vacating the White House, 
the name of one of his needy brothers-in-law, for the posi- 
tion of paymaster in the regular army. Hayes' example 
was equally pernicious aud disgraceful ; aud he must excuse 
us if we sav we fail to see where the civil service comes in. 



18 

Grant was good to the Sharpes ; Hayes is good to the 
Smiths. 

It is now nearly a year since a subservient Senate con- 
firmed Paymaster Smith, and yet we venture the assertion 
that during all that time he has not performed a day's duty 
as paymaster. Indeed it is very well known that he has 
spent most of his time traveling over the country in search 
of witnesses willing to swear at any price against General 
Fitz John Porter and in favor of his relative John Pope. 
The rest of his time he has spent coaching Recorder Gard- 
ner, and playing the part of a junior prosecuting attorney. 
This, too, with the knowledge of Hayes, our President and 
great High Priest of civil service reform. We come now 
to the other Smith. 

WILLIAM HENRY SMITH— REFORMER. 

William H. Smith, differs from Tommie, in look, man- 
ner, and sentiment. But he is equally active as a reformer, 
and equally dear to Mr. Hayes' heart. His highest ambi- 
tion seems to be to pull other and better men down and 
build himself up. We do not find it recorded that he 
distinguished himself during the war, or that, like Tommie 
Smith, his remarkable namesake, he had rendered military 
services, meriting high promotion by scouting nearly four 
miles down one road, and nearly four miles up another, 
and doing both at a safe distance from the enemy's guns, 
and all this heroic business, with — 

Two mounted troopers two hundred yards in front of him ; 
Two mounted troopers two hundred yards in the rear of him. 



Note. — It will explain a great many things in this pamphlet 
when wi^ say it was written more than a vcar ago. 



19 

And yet William Henry Smith was more than a match 
for Tommie Smith as a reformer, and a man to make it 
unpleasant for rascals who do not carry prayer books 
in their pockets. Let us explain exactly where the dif- 
ference comes in, mentally and physically, between Tom- 
mie Smith and William Henry Smith. Tommie is a 
robust and somewhat muscular christian, of coarse and 
vulgar origin, walks with a swinging gait, and, like Presi- 
dent Hayes, rocks his whole body as he moves along. 
William Henry is described to us as small, wizard like of 
countenance, and with a hungry, cadaverous look. A. 
very short acquaintance with him would convince any 
sensible man that he was a reformer by profession and a 
hypocrite by nature. 

William Pfeury Smith graduated in the newspaper 
business, which very materially improved his morals, if 
not his religion. As a newspaper man he was enterpris- 
ing, unscrupulous and devilish. Always a reformer he 
was much given to the worship of mammon, and be- 
lieved that good prayers could be used to put money in 
your purse. This may seem strange to innocent people 
not accustomed to the worldly ways of Christian states- 
men. We must pass over several marvelous events in the 
history of this great professional reformer, and come to 
where he figured in the muddy waters of Ohio politics. 
The country has for the last four years had ample proof 
that there is nothing crooked about Ohio politics, and 
have we not our good friend General Garfield as an ex- 
ample that both religion and political {)urity may be com- 
bined in an Ohio politician ? It was because the irrepressi- 
ble William Henry Smith, embodied all these virtues in 
a pre-eminent degree, that the people made him secretary of 



20 

the State of Ohio, and sense-keeper to " His Excellancy," 
the good Kutherford B. Hayes. The last named gentle- 
man was currently believed to be governor of the State. 
That was a mistake, and we have Geu'l Ben. LaFevre 
as authority for saying so. Congressman elect LaFevre 
says William Henry Smith was governor as well as secre- 
tary of State. We also have the authority of Congress- 
man elect LaFevre for saying that the good and gushing 
Rutherford B. Hayes merely played the part of a dumb 
Indian at the door of the great Ohio tobacconist. 

Vie are also informed that it was at a tea party in 
Columbus, Ohio, in the early spring of 1877, when the 
robins were singing, that the gushing Rutherford B. Hayes, 
and the irrepressible William Henry Smith met, enjoyed 
"sweet communion," whatever that means, embraced, ex- 
changed joys and mingled their tears, and parted ; yes, 
parted, but not forever. They parted, William Henry to 
wander to Chicago, that wicked city of the west, to advance 
the cause of reform, and develop his business ability as 
agent of the Associated (Western) Press, at a salary of 
$5,000 a year ; the good and gushing Rutherford to pro- 
ceed to Washington, and, by virtue of a grand military 
escort, take possession for four years of the Executive 
Mansion (to which the people had elected another man) at 
a salary of $50,000 a year. It will be seen from this that 
these two Ohio patriots parted, and went on their special 
missions, to be well taken care of for a few years at least. 
The Western Associated Press agent entered actively upon 
his duties, moddling, reforming, accumulating news, and 
putting money in his purse. The good Rutherford B. 
Hayes was hardly warm in another man's seat in the 
Executive Mansion than he sent the name of his old sense- 



21 

keeper to the Senate for collector of the Port of Chicago. 
Of course a subservient Senate confirmed, and William 
Henry Smith, was in the enjoyment of two fat oflBces, both 
with good salaries attached. And this is what the good 
Mr. Hayes calls civil service reform. Called by the mildest 
name it was an indecent appointment, beside which those 
of the guerrilla Moseby and the debarred Hilliard will not 
compare. 

This appointment was wrong socially, morally, and 
politically, and evinced in Mr. Hayes a very low sense of 
official morality. Indeed it does not seem to have occurred 
to this good and gushing President, that in conferring upon 
an official whose time, and whole time, was already occu- 
pied by the duties of one important office, another, and a 
government office with larger responsibilities and more ex- 
tensive duties, (duties he could not properly attend to,) he 
was committing a great public wrong. We could give the 
very best of reasons why the office of an Associated Press 
agent and the office of Collector of Customs should not be 
conducted by one and the same person. As was natural, 
Mr. Smith has made one office subordinate to the other, 
the government office subordinate to his agency of the 
Western Associated Press. Indeed we are informed on 
good authority, that this great professional reformer com- 
pels the custom house officials to come to the office of the 
Western Associated Press for their salaries. He tells you, 
with consummate coolness, that he sees no wrong in this. 
That must be credited to his lack of official sensibility. 
The wonder is that this great civil-service reformer — this man 
after Mr. Hayes' own heart — did not put out a sign, and go 
into the practice of law. He could then have farmed out 
the duties of his other offices to some of his Ohio cousins. 



22 

The man who accepts au important office, or indeed any 
office of trust, and receives the people's money for duties 
he cannot discharge properly in consequence of more " press- 
ing prfvate business " is an official miscreant. 

Few things could more forcibly illustrate the utter in- 
sincerity of Mr. Hayes as a civil-service reformer than 
this double-headed appointment of his friend William 
Henry Smith. Nor must it be forgotten that appraiser 
Moore, of the Philadelphia Custom House, was removed 
by Secretary Sherman because he was engaged in " private 
business." 

POCKETS TWO SALARIES AND BEGINS 
THE WORK OF REFORM. 

Candid-minded people will not be surprised that so con- 
summate a pretender should have signalized his career of 
reform in Chicago by procuring the indictment by a grand 
jury of two honest officials. Nor will they be surprised 
that he called to this aid in this foul work two such corrupt 
instruments as Mullett and Farwell, one an ex-supervi- 
sing Architect of the Treasury, the other an ex-member of 
Congress, with a damaged reputation. We refer, of course, 
to the indictment of ex-Supervising Architect William A. 
Potter, and James G. Hill. 

Just here let us turn aside to say that the writer was 
first, nine years ago, in the columns of the New York Stm, 
to thoroughly expose the manner in which Mullet was 
prostituting the office of supervising architect of the Treas- 
ury, making it a personal irresponsible affiiir, subservient 
to the interests of a corrupt political party. We were also 
first to thoroughly expo.se the workings of that marvelous 
device for swindling the Goverumeut and filling the pock- 



23 

ets of pet contractors — " the fifteeu per cent, system." In 
a word, we know whereof we write. 

Mr. Potter is a brother of Clarkson N. Potter, member 
of Congress, and son of the well known Bishop Potter. 
He is a man of refined tastes, scholarly, and a gentleman 
in instinct, education, and association. Those who know 
him best would not for a moment doubt his integrity or 
believe him capable of a dishonest act. No stronger con- 
trast could be pictured than is presented in the characters 
of Messrs. Potter and Mullett. 

When Mr. Secretary Bristow summarily dismissed Mul- 
lett from the office of supervising architect of the Treasury 
he tendered the office to Mr. Potter, who accepted it with 
great reluctance. He at once incurred Mr. MuUett's dis- 
pleasure, and for the very good reason that he (Mullett) 
did not want either an honest man or a gentleman to ex- 
amine and report on the crookedness of his office. Mullett 
at once opened the batteries of his profanity and his black- 
guardism on ^Ir. Potter; and as he has since done on Mr. 
Hill, hoping to shield himself and at the same time make 
them ridiculous. President Grant had a staunch friend 
in Mullett, and Mullett had a staunch friend in President 
Grant. Bristow, too, had incurred Gi-ant's displeasure for 
his treatment of Mullett, who was daily expecting to be 
returned to his office through the corrupt influence of the 
rings which were at that time known to hold Grant com- 
pletely in their power. In the face of all this abuse, in 
the face of all this opposition by the most corrupt rings 
ever organized for power and plunder, Mr. Potter kept 
steadily on in his work of reforming the office and correct- 
ing the abuses Mullett had inti'oduced into it and encour- 
aged. In a word he made a manly effort to clean the 




24 II 

013 789 625 4 

office of some at least of the foulness Mullett had infested 
it with. The task was a heavy one. Turn which ever 
way he would and there was a ring staring him in the 
face, and making corrupt demands. There was the Seneca 
Sandstone Ring, of unwholesome memory. There was the 
Granite Ring, with its rich and powerful republican influ- 
ence in Congress. There was, worst of all, the White 
House Ring, with Grant as the central figure, and Shep- 
hard, Ingalls, Babcock, and other patriots as the evolving 
patriots. And, too, there was the Whiskey Ring, with its 
brood of republican patriots picketed all over the West 
and North. They all basked in Mullett's sunshine, and he 
made his office the prolific tree from which they all gathered 
fruit. Indeed the patriots we have described virtually 
owned Mullett, and had him so completely in their power, 
that he was forced to do their bidding. 

More. The very contracts professional reformer William 
Henry Smith asked a Chicago grand jury to indict Messrs. 
Potter and Hill for, were made by Mullett, made iu the 
interest of a corrupt political ring, and encouraged and 
and extended by him. It is enough to say, that Mr. Pot- 
ter struggled, and struggled in vain, threw up his office 
and retired in disgust. Mr. Hill succeeded Mr. Potter, and 
notwithstanding he had enjoyed Mullet's confidence and 
esteem, that irrepressible little gentleman (Mullett) at once 
changed the current of his abuse to Mr. Hill. This gen- 
tleman, following the example of Mr. Potter, went ener- 
getically to work to remedy the abuses the office was afflicted 
with, and clean it of the vile ring influences Mullet had 
encouraged. We shall want some better proof than we 
have yet seen, to make us believe Mr. Hill is not an honest 
man. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 789 625 4 



